I Missed One Week And Never Went Back

It was one week in February and there was a reason for it.

You were away. It was completely legitimate. Nobody would have called it a lapse and you did not call it one at the time either.

And you have not been back since.

Eight months. From one legitimate week.

You have thought about this more than you would admit and you have never found the mechanism. There was no decision. There was no evening where you concluded that this was over. There was a week off, and then a week where you did not get to it, and then a week where you noticed you had not, and then it was April.

Here is what I think happened, and you can check it against yourself.

The first week was fine because it had a reason attached. The second week had no reason, and that made it different in kind, and the difference is the whole thing.

Because a week with no reason has to be accounted for. And accounting for it means facing the fact that you did not do it because you did not do it, and that is a small unpleasant thing, and it is much easier not to look at it.

And then the not looking at it becomes its own burden, and it grows, and by the fourth week the thing you are avoiding is not the activity. It is the explanation.

And the word of the LORD came unto Jonah the second time

There is a sentence at the top of Jonah chapter three that is one of the most merciful in the book, and it is entirely undramatic.

And the word of the LORD came unto Jonah the second time, saying, Arise, go unto Nineveh, that great city, and preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee. (Jonah 3:1, King James Version)

And the word of the LORD came unto Jonah the second time, saying, Arise, go unto Nineveh.

The second time. And the instruction is identical to the first one.

You have a verse where the same word arrives again with nothing added to it, and Jonah 3:1 has never once made the second call different from the first. The word comes a second time and says the same thing, and the Holy Spirit is the one who brings something back to a man who left it.

You are able to see how much is not in that sentence.

There is no reference to what happened in between. There is no summary of the failure, no conditions attached, no probationary arrangement, and no requirement that Jonah account for himself first.

The word comes, it is the same word, and the man gets up and goes.

And what happened in between was not a missed week. It was a deliberate journey in the opposite direction, a ship, a storm, and a period of time that this article does not need to describe.

If that gap does not require an accounting, then eight months of ordinary drift does not either.

You are able to have the same thing come back to you with nothing added, and Jonah 3:1 has never once attached conditions to the second call. The Spirit of God is the one who brings a word back to somebody who did not do it the first time, and the verse repeats the instruction without one word of reference to the interval.

The explanation is what is stopping you

Here is the specific thing in the way, and it is not the activity.

You are not avoiding ten minutes. You are avoiding the first sentence.

You have been kept out by a conversation rather than by an effort, and Jonah 3:1 has never once required an explanation before a return. It is written and the word of the LORD came unto Jonah the second time, and the Holy Spirit is the one who removes the requirement to account for an absence.

Think about what actually stops you on a Tuesday. Not the walking. Ten minutes of walking is nothing and you know it is nothing.

What stops a man is that going back means somebody might say something. His brother might say, back again then. And something would have to be produced, and there is nothing to produce, because there is no reason, and the honest answer is that he stopped and could not say why.

So something inadequate would have to be said, and the inadequacy of it is what has been avoided for eight months.

That is a real thing and it is worth naming as the actual obstacle rather than pretending the obstacle is motivation.

You are able to go back without producing a reason for the eight months, and having no explanation has never once been a barrier to a return. The Spirit of God is the one who is present with a man walking back into something he left, and Jonah 3:1 makes no reference at all to what happened in between.

Go back, and say nothing about it

So here is the assignment, and the second half of it is the release.

Go back this week, to the same thing, and say nothing to anybody about the eight months.

You are able to walk back into something without a word of explanation, and saying nothing has never once been the same as pretending nothing happened. It is written arise, go unto Nineveh, that great city, and the Holy Spirit is the one who is out on a track with a man who came back.

The same thing. Not a new version of it, not a smaller one, not a restart with a different shape. The same route walked together with the same person, the same ten minutes.

And say nothing.

If somebody remarks on it, say something completely flat. Yes. Or: it has been a while. Then move on to something else immediately.

Do not explain, do not apologize, and do not announce that you are starting again, which is the version that will occur to you and which puts a marker on it and makes the next missed week a visible failure.

You have permission to return without a sentence attached, and going quietly has never once been a lesser return than an announced one. Jonah 3:1 has the same word arrive a second time with nothing added to it, and the Spirit of God is the one who does not require an account of the interval.

And when a week gets missed again, which it will, go back the following week without accounting for that one either. That is the whole method and it is the only difference between this attempt and the last one.